Horse origins mystery 'solved'

Brett Smith for RedOrbit.com Just two days after the Triple Crown, scientists have determined that domestic horses, like the Kentucky Derby winner "I'll Have Another," originated on the grassy plains of modern-day Ukraine, southwest Russia and western Kazakhstan. UK scientists at the University of Cambridge used a genetic database of more than 300 Eurasian horses to trace the origins of domestic breeds, according to their study published in the May 7 edition of the science journal PNAS. Using this genetic information, several computer-generated models were created in an effort to understand possible domestication scenarios. Researchers determined that the domestic horse's common ancestor, Equus ferus, inhabited the western Eurasian steppes around 160,000 years ago. They also said E. ferus descendants interbred with wild horses. "Our research clearly shows that the original founder population of domestic horses was established in the western Eurasian Steppe, an area where the earliest archaeological eviden